Catch of a Lifetime

Fishing Looks Different When You Have Kids

Some of my very earliest memories are with my sibling and my dad at the lake or river fishing.  My dad LOVED fishing. Therefore, as a young boy, when he went fishing, which was often, I wanted to tag along. All my siblings did.  I so appreciate his tolerance towards my siblings and I during those trips to the lake in our youth.  Now that I have children of my own, I know that fishing with them means more helping them and significantly less fishing for myself.  It was no different for him. Yet we were almost always along for the ride. I owe him a big thanks for instilling his passion for fishing in me. 

Last summer I went on a fly-fishing trip to Montana. My former pastor and another friend drove up to fish the Judith River and Big Spring Creek near Sapphire Village and Lewistown respectively.  The trip was awesome, and the fellowship and landscape were top notch! That said, we didn’t exactly “kill ‘em.”  The fishing was tough. Big Spring Creek was suffering water clarity issues due to lots of runoff from recent rains and snowmelt. If the trout can’t see your fly…well that’s not exactly ideal.  The Judith was running crystal clear, but it suffers from one major issue.  The upper reaches we were fishing often run dry during the summers.  This results in low numbers of fish.  That being said, my cast/fish ratio was not strong that trip.  You either had to float the fly right in front of the fish in Big Spring or work hard to even find a fish in the Judith.   To be honest my ratio is never exactly strong, but this was ridiculous.  Aside from the setbacks, fish were still caught and lifelong memories with good friends were made. 

Fishers of Men

That brings me to my point, I was sitting in church and like we often do our pastor had the congregation recite Matthew 4:19 aloud.  It is one of our “Mission” verses at our church. 

“And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.’”

I sat in the pew and for the first time, I considered what “fishing” for people would actually look like.  Like my dad passed on a passion and desire for fishing, our heavenly Father is passing His passion for “fishing for men” to us. Eventually, I concluded that (big surprise here) Jesus was onto something. He wasn’t just using this to relate to the fishermen He was saying it to, He was also accurately describing the process.  There are certain marks of a successful fisherman.  Likewise, these qualities need to be ours in our effort to make disciples of Christ!  

First, you will never catch a fish if you don’t go fishing. It isn’t owning all the gear, or talking about the tactics, or buying all the right baits, lures, flies, weights or hooks.  It takes you actually wetting a line and testing the waters.  You will never make another disciple of Christ by talking about it with your Bible study, reading all the “how to” books, or by living a moral life.  Making disciples of Christ takes intentionality.  It takes an attitude of, “I’m gonna go fishing today.”  When was the last time you were going about your day-to-day and accidentally found yourself at the local lake, rod in hand.  It never happened to me that way.  Likewise, with discipleship we need to set our minds to it and very intentionally build the relationships and have the conversations with those around us who don’t yet know Christ. 

Second, there isn’t a “catch all” lure or bait out there.  I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I tied a new fly on in Montana trying to see what the fish wanted to bite on.  In fly fishing, presentation can be everything.  You must have the right fly, line and cast to entice that finicky trout to bite.  When working to make disciples what works for Joe isn’t necessarily going to work for Bill.  How do we discern what approach to take? Well, it takes time to build a relationship and get to know the person.  Again, this takes intentionality and commitment. It’s not as haphazard as just throwing different approaches out there and seeing what bites. 

Lastly, patience and persistence are key.  Like I stated earlier, my cast/fish ratio was atrocious on my trip to Montana.  There were absolutely times that I sat on the bank dumbfounded at how I hadn’t caught a fish yet. Every time on that trip, though, persistence paid off.  Eventually each day there was a moment, whether it was a new fly or simply the time of day, when the fish started biting and I had a fish in the net.  Keep at it, and that friend you’ve been praying for and planting seeds in may eventually take the hook. 

Now, we aren’t guaranteed to see the fruits of our labor as tangibly as a fish in a net.  The work is arduous and guaranteed to meet resistance at some point.  The results, however, are eternal and nothing is better than that.  It’s the catch of a lifetime.